Hornady RAPiD Safe–Hands on Review

With its red-on-black color scheme, the Hornady RAPiD Safe is anything but subtle. I’ve had this one in for a month now, and I’ve almost gotten used to the way it looks. It is a single-gun-storage solution for the bedside fast access safe. It is fast, offers a variety of opening mechanisms, and is emblazoned with a gigantic red H, just in case you forget it is made by Hornady, one of the most respected names in the firearms industry.

And this is a safe worthy of the Hornady H. It is a serious gun storage container. The design features are more theft and tamper resistant than those of most bed-side safes. The safe weighs close to 16 pounds (empty), and at almost 16 inches long, it is too large to be carried easily.

The Hornady RAPiD Safe offers a wide variety of entry options. The safe has a programmable key-pad. It also has a key back-up. In addition, you can program RFID options. The safe comes with two bracelets, a key-fob, and RFID cards. Any two of these can be programmed to open the safe. My favorite is the bracelet, as when you reach for the safe (in a controlled fashion), the safe opens. It is the next-best-thing to home carry, and a great way to allow instant, controlled access to someone in the home. The key fob and cards may be appealing to some, but I can’t keep track of my keys in the home, and don’t carry a wallet, because it is always lost. But I rarely lose track of my wrists, so I’ll be sporting a fashionably tactical bracelet around the house.

In this image, the gun and magazine are side by side, which makes lawyers happy.

And when the RAPiD Safe opens, that’s when the real difference becomes apparent. The gun rides in a carriage of sorts inside that is operated by gas shocks. The contraption is hinged into the lid, so when the safe opens, the gun rises up, angled right into your waiting hand. No lifting the lid and fishing around in the safe; it simply pops open and rises up.

This takes less than a second to happen. With the RFID opening devices, there is a slight pause as the lock disengages, and then a whir as the bolts are pulled in. From swipe to open takes just about .90 seconds. I timed it in the video below, the one I made, and it is under one second.

Once open, the gun is held tightly by foam inserts. I say tightly, but I’m using a full-sized Sig P226. If you had a thin concealed carry piece, like a Springfield Armory XD-S, it isn’t as tight. The foam protects and holds the pistol in the perfect position.

The swell hides the RFID chip that opens the safe.

The lawyers would like for me to write the oddly capitalized phrase Hornady RAPiD Safe again, and they require me to remind you that the Hornady RAPiD Safe is not meant for the storage of a loaded handgun. The Hornady RAPiD Safe is meant for the storage of an unloaded firearm. In this way, the Hornady RAPiD Safe will not play a part in any negligent discharges. Theoretically, the foam in which the gun rides could press back on a light trigger and fire a gun that is stored in condition one. In theory.

I’m not a lawyer, and would store a loaded handgun in this in a heartbeat. I set up every pistol I had on hand, including a 1911 with a 3 pound pull, and I couldn’t get a single hammer to fall (even when purposefully pressing on the back of the grip safety on the twitchy 1911). Not even when I tried, obnoxiously, to make it happen. The safe does a fine job of storing a handgun, loaded, cocked, and ready. Or unloaded, too.

And there is little room in the safe for a gun and a magazine, unless you store the magazine in the foam with the gun. If you put it in the bottom of the safe, the lid may not close–which is why I’d keep the magazine in the gun. Even if I were not going to keep a round in the chamber, I’d still keep one mag in the gun and a spare in the foam.

The Price

$276.67. For what you get, I find the price reasonable. This is one of the most robust bedside option I’ve seen. Most of these types of safes only offer modest security. They’re mostly intended to be a speed-bump of sorts. Most do this well. The Hornady RAPiD Safe is like a really tall, steep speed bump. The added weight and extra and 16 gauge steel would be genuine deterrents. And it even comes with the best tie-down cable I’ve seen for a home safe.

If it were only a bit more subtle…. No big deal. So it clashes with the decor. I guess I’ll just have to find a Hornady themed bedroom suite.

More pictures after the videos….

Hornady RAPiD Safe

The Hornady RAPiD Safe.

The steel is thicker than most small safes, and the weight reflects that.

There is not room in the safe for both a large handgun and a magazine, unless you get creative.

The control panel lifts up to reveal the key access.

There are two bolts that slide out and catch on the sides of the safe.

The bolts secure against hardened steel inserts.

The gun rides in a carriage inside the safe that rises up when the safe is opened.

The card can be programmed to open the safe.

A key backup opens the safe, even when there is no power.

The Hornady bracelet is a bit tighter than I’d like on my wrist, but it fits.

The AC power adapter plugs in easily.

If you’ve lost all of the other access doohickeys, you can use a programmable key pad.

not dependable i talked to tech cause my safe i keep in my motorhome and car dont work goes completely dead if is is to cold hornady told me that it was only designed to work at room temp and the battery are brand new….. once it warm up under load battery checked 12 volts and it opened…… i put old battery’s in when it was warm out side and it opened under load at 10.9 volts, always goes dead with new batterys if to cold. NOT DEPENDABLE……….. BIG LIABILITY FOR HORNADY.

I absolutely love this safe, except of one thing – no matter what I do, I can not get the battery backup to work. I checked the proper positioning of the batteries, checked to be sure the battery box was properly attached to the snap-on wire plug, and yes, gentlemen, I used new batteries. No matter what, the batteries will not work. Absolutely everything else works perfectly when pulled into the charger – the card, the key fob, the number code pad, and especially the RFID bracelet!With it, I have the gun in hand in less than 2 seconds. Perfect! Though it would be nice to come in some other color than plain black (sorry, I do like a little fashion). But just checking – has anyone else had a problem with the battery case/backup mechanism? If I can’t get this solved, I’m going to have to use this one in my Jeep (which is equipped with 120V plugs). Any solutions, anyone?

wait a minute haveing my gun under my pillow,,,has got nothing to do with wheather O’Bummer want s something from the general public or not,! Neither of my pain the ass wives liked it,!!You know who got a JAB in the ribs when they herd something go bump in the night,!!,,,Rookey! My mom would say Is That Your 1911 or Mine,,,,OK,!!

I had looked at this safe previously. A good review. A couple of points. One minor, one major.

How would one tie down or secure this safe so that it can’t easily be picked up and taken away?

The one major concern was the access to the keys. Seems to me that if the safe is locked, your child or bad guy could merely open the control panel and gain access to the keys and thus open the safe and there is your pistol for the using or taking.

Chris: under “the price” part of the article, the author points out that the safe “even comes with the best tie-down cable I’ve seen for a home safe.”

Regarding your second concern, in the first video where the author is demonstrating the different aspects of the safe, the area underneath the control panel is simply the override lock that the supplied keys fit. If I owned the safe, I would choose another place to keep the keys than under that panel.

Additionally, this unit has four ¼” holes drilled through the bottom to bolt the safe to something solid. Mine is bolted to the wall beside the bed into a stud. Removing the safe will require tearing the wall down. If I wanted to go a step further, I could bolt a hard eye to another stud and use the cable as a secondary securing device.